Starting this month, Microsoft is no longer shipping updates for Windows 7 and 8.1 when new processors are detected, as the company is only supporting these chips on Windows 10.

Part of Redmond’s strategy to encourage the transition to Windows 10, the blocking of updates on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems powered by processors like AMD’s Ryzen or Intel’s Kaby Lake, leaves users with no other option than to upgrade to the latest operating system.

A notification that’s displayed to users when trying to update these systems provides them with instructions on how to perform the switch to Windows 10.

“Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss the important security updates,” this notification reads.
"The benefits of moving to Windows 10"

It goes without saying that without patches and security updates, systems remain vulnerable just like they are running an unsupported version of Windows, while at the same time missing all the opportunities of new technologies that are bundled into Windows 10.

In terms of gaming, for example, users who are upgrading to Windows 10 can use not only the new DirectX 12, but also the Game mode that’s exclusively available in the Windows 10 Creators Update. This new feature boosts gaming performance by setting the game’s main process to high priority level, while also pushing other less critical processes to standby mode for reduced resource usage.

Migrating to Windows 10 is a step that sooner or later everyone needs to make, especially because older operating systems are slowly but surely reaching end of support anyway. Windows 7, for example, is projected to stop receiving updates is January 2020, so users running it have less than 3 years to perform the switch to Windows 10.

Starting this month, Microsoft is no longer shipping updates to Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs powered by seventh-generation processors like Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen, but it turns out that the company has also banned older processors by accident.

Systems running Windows 7 and 8.1 on AMD Carrizo chips are no longer getting updates either, and the software giant said in a statement that support for these configurations would continue to be provided.

“Starting with the April 2017 Cumulative Update release, devices with an AMD Carrizo DDR4 processor running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 might start to receive a message that the processor is not supported with those versions of Windows. Microsoft intends to continue to support Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 with this processor and plans to address the issue causing the message in a future update,” Microsoft says.

There’s absolutely no ETA available right now as to when a fix would be provided, but Microsoft explains that the error appears after installing April 2017 updates.
"New chips only supporting Windows 10"

As per the company’s policy, Windows 10 is mandatory for Intel 7th-genration processors, AMD Bristol Ridge, and Qualcomm 8996, so systems running Windows 7 or 8.1 no longer receive updates. Computers that are banned from getting patches are provided with the following error:

“Windows could not search for new updates. An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. Error(s) found: Code 80240037 Windows Update encountered an unknown error.”

Additionally, Windows Update displays the following message when checking for new updates: “Unsupported hardware. Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates.”

The next Patch Tuesday takes place on May 9, but it remains to be seen if Microsoft releases a fix for systems affected by this accident in the meantime.

Microsoft’s own policy states that the latest generation processors, like Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen, can only be used on Windows 10 PCs, with older Windows versions listed as unsupported and not getting any updates should these chips be detected.

However, it looks like Microsoft’s chip detection system isn’t working 100 percent correctly, as there are several complaints that systems running older processors are banned from getting updates as well.

Posts on Tweakers (via InfoWorld) reveal that Windows updates were blocked on systems powered by Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 2.70GHz and Celeron J1900 processor, with an error identical to the one received by users whose Windows 7 computers are running the latest-generation chips.

“Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the process is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates,” the error reads.
"Graphics card also banned?"

What’s more, it looks like the software giant has also banned computers that are using an AMD Radeon RX480 graphics card, even though Microsoft is specifically referring to CPUs in its restriction of running Windows 10 with latest-generation chipsets.

“Because of how this support policy is implemented, devices that run the following Windows versions and that have a seventh generation or later generation processor may no longer be able to scan or download updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Update,” Microsoft says without even mentioning graphics card as unsupported in Windows 7.

Microsoft is yet to provide a statement on this, but we’ve reached out to the company to ask for more information and we’ll update the article to see if this is indeed a restriction that’s being applied by accident.

In the meantime, users whose computers are no longer getting updates can try a third-party workaround to unlock updates, at least until Microsoft provides a fix or some details on what went wrong.